Double Coin parent to build Thai plant

By Jane Ho, Crain News Service

RAYONG, Thailand (July 26, 2016) — Shanghai Huayi (Group) Co., the holding company of Chinese tire maker Double Coin Holdings, is setting up a tire production joint venture in Thailand, in the country's rubber industrial zone LK-Rubber Industrial City Hub (LK-RICH).

The new company, Huayi Group (Thailand), is a joint venture with Bangkok-based Tribeca Enterprise Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Thai rubber company Thai Hua Rubber Public Co. Ltd. and the promoter of the LK-RICH estate.

A contract for the project was signed in May, according to the website of China's Ministry of Commerce. The companies' respective ownership stakes were not disclosed.

The companies plan to pump $285 million in investment funding into the new plant, which is projected to have annual capacities for 1.5 million truck and bus tires and 50,000 industrial tires.

Taking up an area of 3.23 million square feet, the plant will employ 800 and generate more than $400 million in annual revenue when in operation, scheduled to begin in next March or April.

Tires made at the site will be sold in Thailand and other ASEAN countries as well as North America, according to the ministry report.

The new plant's annual rubber consumption will start at 60,000 to 80,000 metric tons and reach 100,000 tons by 2019, the report said.

Thai Hua Rubber is a leading Thai natural rubber processing and exporting enterprise, with holdings in medical rubber gloves, rubber wood kitchenware, coffee beans, etc.

LK-RICH describes itself as an “eco-sensitive, rubber-based industrial estate” approved by the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand. The estate claims to be the first of its kind in Thailand, catering exclusively to the rubber and rubber-related industry.

Jane Ho is a correspondent for European Rubber Journal, a United Kingdom-based sister publication of Tire Business.